Review: Homefront: The Revolution (PC)

Rating: 0
Author: Jim Smale

by Jim Smale · Published May 23, 2016 · Updated May 23, 2016

Homefront: The Revolution is an open-world first person shooter where you must lead the Resistance movement in guerrilla warfare against a superior military force.

Pros:

Graphics are actually really nice once the settings have been jacked up. The world is vast yet detailed. Lighting is top notch coupled with the weather effects.
Options: Resolution, Fullscreen y/n, AA, Texture resolution, V-Sync, System spec(low, medium,high, ultra) Motion blur, Shadows, Object, Particles, Post processing, Lens flare and FOV slider.
35GB Download size.
Full controller support.
Steam achievements.
Steam trading cards.
Open world gameplay. Events can kick off at any time. Choose to explore, Do side quests or crack on with the main story-line.
Dynamic weather and day/night cycle.
Aim assist on/off.
Decent story that is actually entertaining and full of action.
Huge map that unlocks as you progress through the story.
Each part of the map is assigned a colour zone. Yellow means you are in stealth mode, No guns and must raise the revolution meter to get people on side. You do this by sabotaging equipment, Aiding civilians and finding radios. Red zone is like yellow zone but you are a wanted man and again must stealth around. You can. If detected hide in porta loos or dumpsters to loose the KPA. Enemies (KPA) in red zones are more aggressive and stronger.
Strongholds: Little bases placed over each area. You will get a few kinds in each area offering different challenges. Some are hacking, Some are gas stations and gas must be cleared before hand or you just get a stronghold full of bad guys. Nice little touches to note are things like breaking in via hidden weak spots or jumping in via a rooftop.
Hacking mini game done via you phone and thumsticks.
Loot/scavenge from things like TVs, Couches, Cars and PC equipment.
Sell valuables scavenged at gun shop kiosks to buy new weapons/gear/consumables or upgrade existing gear.
Craft on the go via the easy to use menu. Crafting items are found whilst looting.
Unlock fast travel.
Flash points: Random instances that reward cash and loot. They can happen anywhere at anytime. You get a notification on location.
Collectibles are everywhere from journals to radios to stash spots. They will show on the map in some cases. If not then get your adventure hat on and go hunting.
Phone: This is your main piece of kit and keeps all data within it. With your phone you can view the map, Set way points, Look at and manage quest/side missions, Use your transponder that acts like a metal detector for stash spots.
Motorbike: Comes fitted with a transponder and are littered around the world. Use it to travel around faster but also to perform jumps to access higher levels. Motorbikes are also used to power generators should the need arise.
You can recruit other revolutionists once they patrol the streets. They are AI and follow you around and fight alongside you.
Some good ideas are hidden within the game. Examples are things like the stealth mechanic, The parkour infused level design, The sheer wealth of gadgets.
Gadgets: 3 categories: Hack, Distraction and explosions. Unlock new ways to dispense one of the 3 elements. You can attach them to teddy bears or even on a RC car that you control. Gadgets allow you to tackle enemies and situations in a whole new way.
Kill too many civilians and you geta game over and restart at checkpoint screen.
Decent small selection of guns that are made infinitely better by the conversion perk. With conversion you can quickly transform your gun into an entirely new one! Use an assault rifle, Press up on the d pad the select one of two conversions and in front of your eyes you rip off the assault part of the gun and attach a grenade launcher…Magic!
A lot of game to get through with a play through typically taking around 20 to 30 hours depending on skill and side missions.
Resistance Mode: Co op with friends or randoms. You level up and unlock new guns and gear by taking on either an attackor defend scenario on one of the three difficulty levels. You can hgeal and revive each other and team work is a must. Buy caches that contain random items, weapons, buffs or vanity items.

Cons:

Bad performance. Frame drops, stuttering and an annoying freeze for 5 seconds everytime it saves, Loads quests. Even tinkering with the vast graphic options yield patchy results.
Easily get killed. Its like 3 or 4 hits from the dead eye master AI. You can die when doing the heal animation and it all feels like you are a glass cannon.
Taking the strongholds feels really underwhelming. I had it countless times where the base would have no enemies at all! Easy capture sure but it kills the atmosphere and immersion in the world.
Slow starter and take a few hours to really get going.
Glitches a plenty from AI getting stuck in the scenery to you jumping through wealls and ceilings, AI followers always get lost or give up following you. Audio cutting in and out in missions.
Phone messages never seem to read or delete so you have a constant envelope icon on screen.
Random difficulty spikes.
Weapons wheel is awkward and the conversion magic is painfully slow and cumbersome. Put it like this, You cannot “convert” mid gun fight as you will die before choosing the conversion.
Cannot shoot through chain link fences.
Cannot fasdt travel between captured strongholds with the game setting specific fast travel spots.
Very repetitive formula. Go to an area and stealth around doing bit and bobs to get the revolution meter to 100% then take all strongholds.
Feels like they take a few mechanics from other games and show horn them into one. The parkour is very similar in feel and appearance to the Dying light games, Strongholds is a weak version of the outposts in Far Cry.
Small selection of base guns.
Earning money is slow so buying new guns and upgrades is painfully slow.
Looting takes too long, You hold X to loot which fills a bar. Cool you get loot as that happens but then the decent loot happens once the bar is filled and you then touch up the corpse.
Character models can be hard to look at, Very robot face melt in appearance.
Lose valuables upon death.
No proper PVP online modes like in the previous game.
You play a mute despite the game text is clearly written for you to have iunput. It kills the story it really does.
Has that mechanic where nothing happens until you hit some invisible line. This can be really annoying and time consuming as the bar or prompt is very unclear.